The Fora: A Higher Education Community

What say you fire him in order to make an example of him?

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 16, 2024, 03:42:47 PMGotta get my ten pages of T1 in.

Did a bit more.

Oh, I am documenting.  They are not my worst offender, not even for this quarter.


New TAs seem to fall into 2 categories:
super strict
super pushover

I don't think they understand that being "super nice" and giving 100% to everyone on all assignments actually HURTS the students just like finding picky ways to dock points hurts students.

Quote from: marshwiggle on May 16, 2024, 12:04:29 PM[. . .]

If you're old enough to remember, picture it being read in the voice of a K-Tel commercial.

I resemble that remark!

Quote from: Langue_doc on May 16, 2024, 01:06:56 PMIn other news,

QuoteColumbia Faculty Group Passes No-Confidence Resolution Against President

[. . .]

But she's an immigrant! An Arab! A political exile! Does this mean she's been identified as a . . . race traitor?

Gotta get my ten pages of T1 in.

The cover of the New Yorker captures the tension at graduation nicely.

The person handing out diplomas is in purple regalia, so this is not Columbia. Perhaps NYU?

The comparison to Occupy Wall Street is a good one. The total failure of the movement is also an important element  to think about.

Quote from: the_geneticist on May 15, 2024, 05:00:42 PMSorry for the double-post, it's getting to be crunch time for our Spring term.

A TA just told me today (it's Week 7) that a student has been arriving at lab 30-60 minutes late EVERY SINGLE WEEK.  And the TA has been letting them participate.  And giving them credit for their "due at the start of class prelab".

Why didn't the TA tell me the first time this happened?  The official policy is that 10 minutes late = you can't participate.  And late pre-lab assignments = 0 points. 

And the kicker is the TA casually mentioned that the student has been copying their answers from other student worksheets all quarter.

Do these TAs get away with not following protocols? I would email TA with the list of above infractions and also CC the Chair/Grad Stu Advisor/Whoever else who should be aware of this so that there's a paper trail. You've probably documented this, but just my two cents.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 16, 2024, 01:22:51 PMLangue_doc: the Hamilton Hall arrests were the second batch of arrests at Columbia. More than 100 students were arrested a couple of days earlier.

Let's not go around rewriting events to suit the narrative.

See the timeline of the protests, the closing of campus, and the arrests.

Students who had paid their tuition, apartment/dorm rent, and other expenses with the expectation of a semester's worth of instruction and access to classrooms, libraries, dining halls, counseling centers and other campus facilities were abruptly denied access to these and other campus buildings because of the protesters who had taken it upon themselves to speak/act on behalf of their fellow-students. I recall a segment from our local news just before the first set of arrests where students who did not support the protests were complaining about not being able to get to their dorms and also not being able to access the dining rooms.

I don't think the faculty suffered any pay losses but the maintenance and other employees who weren't allowed to come to campus when it was closed probably did, especially the part-timers.

Columbia did ask the faculty to be flexible with their final exams and grading, but students who were expecting uninterrupted instruction, access to dorms and dining plans that they had paid for are the losers and are bound to sue the university.

Most people who live or work near NYC universities don't welcome these protests because they disrupt traffic and transportation. There were reports in the news about a group of protesters unaffiliated with Columbia trying to storm Penn station (I don't recall if this was before the first or the second "encampment") so that they could take the #1 train to Columbia. This was during rush hour, and everyone was relieved that the large group had been stopped before tying up traffic for people wanting to get home to the outer boroughs, suburbs, Long Island, and New Jersey.

Most New Yorkers had a similar reaction to the Occupy Wall Street protests where a group of affluent people (many of those arrested had Manhattan or other upscale addresses) took over a park nowhere near Wall Street, and disrupted not only traffic but also prevented the employees from adjacents buildings/streets who usually took their lunch break there, as well as disrupting the sleep of the residents living along nearby streets with their constant drumming throughout the night.

Langue_doc: the Hamilton Hall arrests were the second batch of arrests at Columbia. More than 100 students were arrested a couple of days earlier.

Let's not go around rewriting events to suit the narrative.